Video Card Question? vol.2

will the ATI Radeon 9600xt be a good video card to play games?
i can't afford a 9800 xt right now..
im not a hardcore gamer but i do have some games i would like
to play Max Payne1/2,Need for speed,and Soul reaver
if it would play these games that would be great

heres my setup
AMD 2800
Volcano 12 HS/FAN
NF7-S MoBo
WD 120gig HD
Corsair XMS 256 pc4000
and just orderd an Antec PS
(this is why i can't afford it LOL)
if i can add the 9600xt and run these games that would be great

How'd you fit the SLK900 with the 92mm fan on the board? My NF7 is tight with just the coolermaster cooler w/80mm fan. I'm running it at 2200mhz just because it runs to hot any higher. I bought the PC already built and haven't checked under the heatsink to see whats under it yet though... Still, like I explained, the 80mm fan is right on the back of the case. How did you get a 92mm in there?

it fit like a glove really all i had to do is move the PS to get my Flathead in there
but other than that it fit ( i could have just put the fan on with the mobo out)
but other than that no probs........
this is the case im using ~My Case~
i mean its cheap but i wanted to MOD this thing like crazy so i did not want
to blow all my cash on a box (but for the price its great and everything fits)

B.T.W. Max
that makes sense
people often ask me "why get such a expensve rig when your not playing games?"
i tell um i got it beacue i use PhotoShop and now im learning 3D modling
and if you ever waited to render a 3d project you'll know why
imma go head and orded that 9600xt
oh do you know if the All-in-Wonder is ok for gaming?

The 9600xt will be fine for those games. It is DirectX9 compatable, so you will have no problem running the newer games. I have a 9600 pro, 512Mb PC3200, XP1600+ and I have no problem running Far Cry at high settings.. (amazingly enough) Just don't expect to run Doom 3 or Half Life 2 at these settings. I'm not even sure if the games will even attempt to run on the system I have, it will probably just laugh at my hardware. And what fun is playing a Next Gen game if you can't SEE the next gen attributes. (pixel shaders and bump maps and what not)

The differences in the two arn't much, and in my opinion arn't worth the extra $200. The core speed on the 9600XT is 500MHz, as opposed to the oddly smaller 412MHz on the 9800XT.. Memory speed is different though; on the 9600. Memory is 256MB DDR with a speed of 600MHz, where as on the 9800 it is 256MB DDR 730MHz.. Both boast a max resolution of 2048x1536. I don't see THAT much of a difference in speed. you may be able to pump out a few extra frame rates on the 9800. Both cards are DirectX9, OpenGL 2.0 compatable.

My recommendation: Save yourself $200 and go for the 9600XT. $145 on Newegg.com

Opack, your system will stand better than you think with Doom 3 and Half-Life 2.

The 9600xt has 4 pipelines, while the 9800xt has 8...So while the 9800xt has lower clock speed, it is significantly faster because of the extra four pipelines...

For instance, I have a Radeon 9800se...The SE denotes that this 9800 has only four active pipelines...A 9800se will run roughly equivelant to a 9600 Pro for this reason...They are technically different chips but run on similar clock speeds and pipelines. The 9800se can be unlocked for the extra four pipelines, but your chances of successfully unlocking the card without artifacts is about 50/50. Anyways, at 277/270 stock with four pipelines I averaged around 90fps after a minute in ATItool. With the pipelines unlocked, I averaged around 180fps. (I replaced the HSF with a PGA370 HSF and jacked 'er to 400/315 tho...I : P)

EDIT: 180fps is with the OC...It was prolly around 130ish with stock clock & unlocked pipes.

So you can see why the 9800xt even with lower clock would severely spank the 9600xt. That said, the 9600xt is still a rock solid card and it will definitely handle most everything you need to throw at it...I'm not too sure how it will do in 3D rendering programs like AutoCAD or 3D Studio Max, but it should do pretty good there too.

The All-In-Wonder cards are basically Radeon's with lots of built-in goodies. Find out what chip the AIW in question is based on by doing a little research if it isn't evident in the product name. It will perform equal to it's Radeon equivelant in games.

The 2800+ is a great cpu now that it's come down in price. The o'cing cpus were the 1700+XP and the 2500+XP. Otherwise, get a larger cpu. As for your video card.........here are two great choices, you decide: